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For $35 an hour, he will catch rare Pokemon for you

PLAY OR PAY: Because of the Pokemon Go craze, some people are trying to make money by offering Pokemon-related services. You can hire "trainers" to catch Pokemon or level up your accounts.TNP PHOTO: PHYLLICIA WANG

During his hunt for Pokemon, Mr Theseira noticed that a good number of gyms in Singapore had been taken over by spoofers.

Spoofers are those who use other means such as apps to hide their GPS location so they could play the game before its Singapore launch. Their head start of about a month means they have acquired or grown stronger Pokemon.

Mr Theseira, a Nanyang Polytechnic graduate waiting to serve his national service, said: "Spoofers have an unfair advantage, and new players are unable to fight at gyms because spoofers store their strongest Pokemon there."

He is offering to help beginners by catching rare and strong Pokemon for them - for $35 an hour.

Mr Theseira declined to reveal any details about his customers.

But he claimed he has received 40 requests since listing his services on marketplace application Carousell three days ago.

"I just want to help the community grow faster," he said.

Pokemon trainers-for-hire have made headlines in the US, where Pokemon Go has been available since July 6.

Ms Ivy St Ive, editor-in-chief of a Brooklyn-based magazine, advertised her services as a Pokemon trainer for US$20 (S$27) an hour on Craigslist, the New York Observer reported last month.

This is just one of many Pokemon-related services.

Here, there are countless listings on Carousellof people offering car rentals and chauffeur services, and offering to level up your Pokemon Go account.

A single rare Pokemon can cost $3 to $20, and paying someone to level up your account to level 30 can knock you back between $30 and $50.

You can even buy a Pokemon Go account filled with rare and powerful Pokemon for $25 to $80.

Most of the time, these services are not done legitimately - by travelling around physically to catch Pokemon - but through hacks, spoofing, and third-party websites, which is against developer Niantic's terms of usage.

For example, there are websites that can show you the exact locations of specific Pokemon around the world.

A seller on Carousell, who declined to be named, told TNP: "It's not legitimate, but the risk of getting banned is maybe less than 1 per cent."